


Jump the Worlds

by R_Strailo (Strailo)



Series: Holiday Collections [1]
Category: Original Work
Genre: Ghosts, Horror, Other, Paranormal, Psychological Horror, Supernatural Elements
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-10-20
Updated: 2017-10-20
Packaged: 2019-01-20 10:33:53
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 10,831
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12430974
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Strailo/pseuds/R_Strailo
Summary: Halloween stories for 2017. Various tales ranging in length and genre all about the creepy side of things.Please see the start of each story for the summary for that story. Thank you.





	1. Mirror Mirror 1/8

**Author's Note:**

> Story 1: Mirror Mirror  
> Genre: Softcore horror.  
> Summary: She had inherited her aunt's home, and moved in with her friends and roommates. What she wasn't expecting to inherit a mirror that is haunted by an ancestor and cursed by a pissed off witch.

_t really is a pretty mirror frame_ , she thought as she brushed her fingers over the mirror’s frame as she stood before it. It had been hanging on her aunt’s wall for as long as she could remember and before. At one time it had been low enough for her to touch it without any issues when she had been ten years old and all gangly limbs for a tiny body. But twelve years later, just after she had turned twenty-two, she was cleaning her aunt’s house to move into it with her friends.

 

Her Aunt Katrina had never married, not legally at least. Her lover had died from cancer long before same-sex marriage had even been talked about. She had just never found a new love after that, but she hadn’t been lonely. After all, she had had lots of nieces and nephews to spoil rotten from her two brothers.

 

Including her favorite niece who she had left her near mansion to, Stacy.

 

Sighing as she patted the frame, Stacy smiled and turned around, looking over the front hallway that she was standing in. To her, it was a beautiful home, full of soft grays and gray-blues, light wood trims, and darker wood stairs, all of it coming to create an open space that flowed from one room to another. The front hall had a rather nice sized coat closet just off to the side of the front door with the staircase right in front of the door.

 

The first floor went in a circle in the way a person got from one room to another. Going to the door to the left of the front door would lead a person to the giant living room slash entertainment area. Stacy could remember the way her aunt held all sorts of parties for her nieces and nephews in that room.

 

From the living room a door lead to the larger dining room with a smaller dining room between the big one and the kitchen. The doors that were between each fit just right along the wall and were custom built to leave the doorways huge. In the rather large kitchen, there was a breakfast nook next to the door that lead out to the enclosed porch and laundry room. From the kitchen a short hallway, the room that was there originally closed off into a walk in freezer, lead into what used to be an art studio.

 

Stacy already had plans set up to get the flooring throughout the house, outside of the kitchen, pulled up one room at a time. Starting with the art studio’s stained linoleum flooring. She was going to turn the studio into her office space, including replacing the pocket doors that sat in either doorway.

 

Thinking of the upstairs, she chuckled, knowing that it was pretty much a straight hallway with the rooms on each side. There were seven total bedrooms, all of them good sized outside of a small one, and three bathrooms. The master bedroom suite, the room that she was going to claim for herself, had one of the bathrooms.

 

She just had to clear it out.

 

Then...then there was the attic which was more like a museum’s carefully controlled storages. Her family history resided up there in neat lines and packed up carefully to be preserved. Most of their journals, diaries, various created things, and other items were displayed in the local museum, but they had made sure that everything was copied.

 

She was intent on going up there to start going through everything. She needed to figure out what she wanted to do with things and make sure that they had indeed found every hidden nook in the old furniture. But she was also wanting to write the book that her mother had started just after she had had Stacy’s eldest brother but had never gotten to finish.

 

Even if she could though, her eyes alone wouldn’t let her do it.

 

Her friend camel walking down the stairs, brushing off her hands. “Why isn’t there a bathroom down here?” she asked, her thicker bottom lip jutting out in a pout.

 

Stacy laughed lightly at her friend. “Because, my dear Marilyn, the downstairs bathroom is only a half bath that isn’t quite done yet. It needs a new toilet. Aunty was redoing it when she died, but luckily she had already paid the guy and he was just waiting for the right toilet to get in. I’m thinking if it goes well, I’ll have him do the flooring for me,” she said, leading the way into the informal dining room. She pulled open the hidden door by pulling on the shelf that sat against the wall. “The thing used to creep me the fuck out because of the fact that originally the door looked like it was supposed to be under the stairs. That and it was just creepy.”

 

Marily looked into the bathroom and hummed, pleased with the way it looked. It was about the standard size for a half bath but didn’t have a toilet in there. But there was already a place for the toilet, a sink and a mirror over the sink. “Yeah, I can imagine. What color did it used to be?” she asked. She shuddered at the answer of bloody red. She shut the hidden door. “Come on, show me this amazing kitchen. I demand to see it since you keep telling me that it’s a chef’s wet dream. That and the porch.”

 

Stacy rolled her eyes at her and waved her hands at the doors that separated the informal dining room from the kitchen. She walked over and opened it up, showing her friend just how to hook them open with the hook and eye on the wall and door. “These are seriously old doors. They’ve only been replaced once but by the same company who made the originals. They’re weighted to naturally swing shut to keep the airflow down to a minimum during the winter months. But during the summer months or during big parties they’re usually kept open. Most of the other doors, outside of the studio’s pocket doors, are all original. The hardware not so much.”

 

“Wow,” Marily said, her eyes wide as she stared at the doors before she followed the bobbing auburn ponytail of her best friend into the kitchen. Stepping inside, she whistled lowly, shaking her head. “Okay, damn it, you were right. This is _nice_. Are you really sure that you want the lot of us moving in with you? Even if it’s only for a few years,” she said, poking around the kitchen. She easily dodged around the boxes that filled with things that were either going to be sold in a giant yard sale over the weekend, donated, or given to other family members depending on the item.

 

“Aunty got it all done after my first year of college actually. She had me do the design work for it so I could have it for my portfolio to show my progress in design work. It turned out really good on a nice budget, and I was able to use it for my first major project for my interior design class since I also make sure that I took so many pictures. And of course kept all of my notes and plans,” she said.

 

“I remember that class actually. I didn’t know it had been your aunt’s kitchen,” Marily said, smiling as she looked over the light wood cabinets that worked well with the dark granite countertops. The refrigerator itself was huge and there was a long chest freezer next to the wall by the hallway door, the breakfast nook sitting on the opposite wall. “You said there’s another fridge slash freezer right?” she asked.

 

“Yeah. Aunty had an industrial sized one set up and made sure that it was an energy saver on top of that. It mostly runs on the solar panels along with the rest of the electronics,” she said, leading the way to the door and pushing the door open. Inside, the two looked over the specialized shelves that were stocked with various drinks in the front half, another door leading into the actual freezer area that was stuffed full of things for the Thanksgiving dinner Stacy’s aunt had been planning.

 

“Damn. What was she doing with all of this? Preparing for the apocalypse?” Marilyn asked, chuckling when they stepped back out of the walk in fridge, Stacy pulling the door closed with a click.

 

“Nah. That was preparing to feed my huge ass family Thanksgiving dinner. It takes about six months of prep work and buying things, the tradition being that the family sends her money to help with everything,” Stacy explained. “Come on. I can show you the studio. I’m going to use it for my own office. And yes, it will end up being locked when I’m not home. Got it?”

 

Marilyn rolled her eyes with a huff. “No shit, Sherlock. We all know that you need all of that room. We’re going for other degrees that doesn’t require us to be arty like, and the bedrooms are more than enough room for all of us,” she promised.

 

Stacy smiled as they walked into the studio. “Yeah, well, I just need to get the floor done and some tables put in, but the money that’s coming from Aunty’s will to me will be put to use for that and to continue prepping for November. That and her royalties will be continuing to help with the upkeep of the house,” she said, going to flop down into a recliner that she had pushed into a corner along with a love seat. “Which reminds me, you guys are invited to stick around for Thanksgiving since we tend to use the enclosed porch. It’s more than big enough.”

 

Marilyn shrugged. “Eh, I might stay around,” she said, smiling at her friend. “Now, I have to ask, what’s up with that mirror in the front hall? That thing is creepy as fuck.”

 

Stacy cackled at her friend. “That old thing? It’s a family heirloom surprisingly enough. It came into my family’s possession about the time that the city was starting to be built. It was a thank you gift for helping to fund the new buildings that were going up,” she told her friend. She pulled her legs up and crossed them as she leant forward, Marilyn flopping down onto the loveseat with an interested look on her face. Stacy told her what she knew of her family, making the other man smile.

 

And ignore the feeling that there was more to the story for the moment.

 


	2. Mirror Mirror 2/8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wattpad readers: I have this story up on wattpad under it's own title and this file will probably be updated later than wattpad. 
> 
> To note: I only have 6 chapters up and out right now.

Marilyn snickered at the four girls as they all stood before the mirror in the front hallways, highly amused by the way that they were all memorized by it. She did have to admit that it did give off some pretty odd vibes, but it really didn’t look all that bad for a mirror from the late Eighteenth century. True, the mirror part had been changed once in 1932 but the frame was all original and still going very strong. It was a testament to the metal workmanship of that time.

 

“Come on, you guys, let’s stop staring at Stacy’s mirror. It’s not going anywhere and you are just gonna have to get used to it since none of her family want the damn thing. Not that she’d actually give it up,” she said. She laughed when the four women jumped a foot into the air and whipped around. “What? Did you think I’m a ghost?” she asked teasingly, her eyes flicking over to the mirror.

 

“No,” one of the women drawled out, playing with a piece of rainbow colored hair. “It’s just a really odd mirror.

 

“I can promise you, Kendra, that the mirror won’t attack you,” Marilyn snorted and waving to the stairs. “Come on, I’ll show you guys the bedrooms. We’ve been able to actually clean them out and all you gotta do is provide your own mattress. Apparently Stacy’s aunt was working on getting them replaced when she died, and had gotten rid of all but a couple of them,” she warned.

 

Miranda, a pretty Gothic woman with purple dyed hair, simply rolled her eyes and smiled. “Like that’s a real issue to worry about,” she teased.

 

“Yeah, speak for yourself, Miranda. I’m not gonna be paid for another week and I spent all my money on the first round of bills and food,” Allendra said. Her pink painted lips pulled into a thin line, dark blue eyes dancing with worry and some amusement.

 

“And this is where I’m going to prove my obvious intelligence over all of you,” Miranda said, waving a finger at them. “I paid my part of the bills out of my current paycheck but I’ve been putting money out of my last couple of paychecks when we were asked to move in with Stacy a month ago. And yes, I sacrificed that new lipstick that I was dying to get, bought all of my food on sale, and didn’t go out to eat at all if you remember. I even sacrificed my monthly treat.”

 

Brandy snickered and tugged on a bit of Miranda’s purple hair. “She’s right. We were told a month ago and she wasn’t the only one to follow that idea,” she said. “But I also put some aside from my quarterly scholarship check after I bought what was needed and what I needed to pay for.”

 

Allendra groaned and hung her head, shaking it. “You guys suck. So much.”

 

“No. They don’t, they were just thinking of the future,” Stacy teased as she pushed the pocket door to her new office open. She was still dressed in a simple pant suit, having been in an online meeting with someone about a possible job after she graduated in February, in just under eight months time. In her opinion, the meeting had gone rather well and she was hoping to hear from them in the next week. “Luckily your room does have a mattress that is good enough until you can replace it,” she promised.

 

“Good. Then can you please show the rooms to us? I want to see them finally,” Allendra huffed, bouncing slightly on the balls of her feet. Stacy and Marilyn shared an amused look before they turned and headed up the stairs to the bedrooms. The smallest bedroom had been turned into a shelved closet so that they could just pile all of their towels and all of their extra toiletries that they had bought whenever they had the extra money.

 

All of them tended to buy large amounts of their supplies for the simple fact that they were working and on scholarships. Even working though there were months where the money was lean so they stockpiled what they could, and now they had a room to do it. It hadn’t taken them much to buy some brackets, screws and shelves.

 

Stacy’s uncle had been willing to do the needed work for them in return for Marilyn’s homemade pizza and a case of soda. Though he had also put in a better light fixture with a better light, claiming that room gave him the creeps.

 

Stacy had agreed with him but didn’t tell any of the girls.

 

“Did we get our things packed up okay?” Stacy asked, Allendra nodding and wiggling the keys to one of her friends giant truck. Standing at the top of the stairs, she looked back and forth and turned to the left, to the first of the two bathrooms that would be shared. “There’s a bathroom on each side of the hallway, the bedroom turned closet the one that’s next to my room,” she said, opening the bathroom door. “I have my own bathroom but you guys can use the bathtub when you want. Just make sure that I’m not going to use it.”

 

She closed the bathroom door and lead the way to the first bedroom.

 

“The washer and dryer is downstairs off the porch in it’s own room and I strung up a line on the porch if you want to hang dry instead of dryer dry something,” she continued.

 

Brandy looked into the first bedroom before looking to the bathroom door. “At least the rooms are a good size.”

 

“This house is measured to be just about a hundred feet short of being called a mansion actually,” Stacy replied, smiling as she shrugged. “It lands at about four thou, nine hundred, and is based off of the Colonial shaped houses, but it’s a bit more boxy on the outside with some pretty decorative bits,” she said. Brandy hummed and stepped inside.

 

She looked around and decided that she liked the gray walls and dark wood furniture that had been fixed, especially the fact that the bedframe was a queen sized frame. Miranda and Kendra took the next two bedrooms that were shown. Marilyn took the first room on the other side, on the other side of the storage room, while Allendra took the room next to the bathroom.

 

It didn’t take the group of women to organize and carry the last of their things into the house, including dishes, cookware, bakeware, and various rugs to replace things that had been given away. Stacy had ended up keeping the holiday dishes, the larger pots and pans that were used to make the large family dinners. Pretty much anything that was used to make and feed a large amount of people.

 

She had also kept the kitchen and living room furniture, which all of the girls were thankful for since their last place had come mostly furnished.

 

As a group, once everything was moved in, they decided to work on the living space boxes, finally getting to see the finished product that was Stacy’s office. The women admired the light flooring and the seating area that she had set up around the small corner fireplace. “Does this place have another fireplace?” Brandy asked as she moved the hanging curtain grate.

 

Stacy flopped into a chair and nodded. “Yep. We can hide it when it’s not in use behind a faux brick panel actually, and we do. I did open it up before you guys came around to do a mid-year cleaning though. We are due snow in a few months and the pre-winter cleanings get booked big time.” She looked at her friends and roommates. “The con about living in this area is that the wires are still above ground and thus we’ll have to deal with anywhere between one to fifteen power outages depending on the weather. We get credit on our electricity bill each time it goes out though.”

 

She smirked as the girls settled down onto the furniture.

 

“The good thing is that my aunt set up a really good generator that runs the fridges, stove, water heater, and the washer and dryer. Not the lights and main heater though since that would take actually ripping out the walls and doing some rewiring in a few places. She had to do that with the new fridge,” she admitted.

 

Allendra lips tilted down into a thoughtful frown. “Meh, we can always live in the living room if that happens. Or in very thick nightgowns. Not like we didn’t have to do it in the last place to,” she said, shrugging one shoulder. “It’s what you get when living in older places. And the rent is still cheaper here by about a hundred bucks.”

 

“Having no mortgage does work in our favor,” Marilyn drawled. She sat on her knees, arms resting on the back of the couch as she looked over the tables that lined one wall. It was already set up as the crafty station for Stacy’s future job. Her thesis build was already partly done and sitting in the middle of them along with her plans, notes, and the fabrics she was playing with. “Did your uncle do these tables to?”

 

“Yeah, he did, for an early Christmas present. He showed me how they could be moved to any corner of this room if I need it,” she said, leaning against her desk. “Now, how about we finish the unpacking and then I can show you where the wood is stored on the side of the porch, and then I can show where the fireplace is. Then how about Chinese and Thai tonight?”

 

The women all cheered and got up to unpack the house. They were intent on finishing it off before they got their dinner for the night. They missed when the mirror tilted on it’s nail, but when Brandy noticed, she tilted it back into place with a smile as she passed by it.

 


	3. Mirror Mirror 3/8

The mirror, for all the fact that the girls barely paid attention to it, was paying attention to them, biding it’s time. The first time that someone noticed something was off was just after the first snow had started to fall, nearly two months after they had moved in. Miranda was home alone, most of the girls at work or classes but she had a feeling that they would be home sooner rather than later due to the amount of snow coming down.

 

She was parked out front, having done a huge run to the grocery story being the only one of them that had a truck with a covered bed, which meant that she had more room compared to Marilyn’s jeep. Luckily Kendra had been able to help her with all of the shopping and shoving the things into her truck before she had headed to work.

 

She was just thanking whoever had decided that the front entrance wasn’t all that huge and long, allowing her to park up close to the stairs. She was planning on leaving the heavier groceries for later, but anything that happened to be cold, frozen, or was anything that would break and or explode in the cold was going to be dragged in. So far, she had hauled in most of the stuff, piling them in the hallway when something caught her attention.

 

It wasn’t all that much, just a flicker of motion out of the corner of her eye, making her whip her head around and frown at the mirror as she put a giant box of sausage patties down. Seeing nothing that could have made the movement, she checked the rest of the hall before shrugging it off and continuing to pull things in. Once she had finished off with most of the important stuff, she parked her car under the open air garage port and headed inside, closing the door with a sigh.

 

She stripped out of her wet winter gear, putting her boots in the tote box next to the door and hung her jacket, scarf and mittens in the closet. She eyed the mirror when the lights flickered, making her sigh and go hunting for the stash of candles and batteries, and pull out each rooms lanterns. She could hear the generator tick over with the flicker and wanted to have everything set up to see just in case.

 

She forgot about the movement that she had seen as she set up everything and was forced to use some candle lanterns to put up the groceries. She pushed it even further out of her mind as the girls started to arrive, helping her haul the heavier stuff into the house and they set up the living room for the rest of the afternoon and night.

 

The next woman to see something in regards to the mirror as Marilyn. It was just two weeks after Miranda had seen the movement and she just brushed it off as having drunk way too much wine while out with a supposedly nice guy who had turned out to be an asshole. She was leaning against the front door as she was tugging off her heels and had looked up to see a reflection in the mirror.  

 

She only looked for a second, squinting, before she looked down to her shoes again. It took a few more seconds for it to register that she had seen a human in the mirror and looked back up with wide eyes. She found that there wasn’t anything there though.

 

Staring at the mirror, Marilyn decided that it had just been her not-so-sober mind playing tricks on her. Carrying her shoes and bag, she headed into the kitchen to get some water before heading up to a bath. Her night could at least lead to a relaxing bath with a good book at the least, pushing aside what she had seen.

 

Stacy saw more when it came to the mirror than what her two friends had seen though.

 

It was the day after Marilyn had her disaster date, and Stacy had been working on taking pictures of the various heirloom items that her aunt had kept in the house for her blog. She had gotten pictures of other things at her family’s home, and had started working on the stuff that was in the main house. She had just started the blog, so it was still new, but she had plans to do a few posts about the items in her family, including the mirror, and an old grandfather clock that was tucked out of any direct sunlight and was well protected.

 

She was standing to the mirror, camera in hand and ready to take a picture. Pulling the camera away from her eye, she checked the picture that she had taken and smiled before she put the camera up to her eye again. She took three more pictures from the same angle. Again, pulling the camera away from her eye, she looked over them with a hum.

 

It was the middle picture of the three that made her stare at the camera screen, feeling a cold sweat break out on the back of her neck. Standing in the mirror, where she knew that there hadn’t been anyone standing, making sure to stay out of the way, was a woman. She was quite obviously glaring at her. Looking back up to the mirror, as promised, there was no one standing there.

 

Licking her lips, she turned on her the balls of one foot and headed into her office. Sitting at her computer, she hooked up the camera and moved the picture to her computer. She quickly created a password locked file for it and deleted the file on the camera, glancing out to the mirror.

 

She vowed to not talk about the picture. She didn’t want anyone to think that she was insane.

 

Kendra and Allendra were the next two to see something around the mirror. It was creeping up to the time of Thanksgiving, and they were all working extra hours to get ready for the day. They had been helping to move the large turkey’s onto a table on the porch to defrost while Stacy was prepping the house for her family. The two had moved to carrying in the cases of soda that would be some of the drinks offered for dinner when they both saw a woman glaring at them from the mirror.

 

Allendra yelped and dropped the box of soda in her hands, nearly getting her toe as she jumped backwards, slamming up against the wall and staring at the now clear mirror.

 

“You just saw that right?” she asked, her voice shaky as she looked over at Kendra who was taking a hit off of her inhaler, trying to stop the attack that was building.

 

“Oh yeah,” Kendra gasped, swallowing around her words before she let out the breath that she had pulled in. “I swear that that mirror is far from right.” She looked over to her friend, the other woman shaking her head.

 

“Nope. It’s so not right. In any form or fashion,” Allendra said, shuddering and shoving her braid over her shoulder. “We do not tell Stacy about this. At least not while she’s working so hard to get Thanksgiving going.”

 

“Yeah, deal,” Miranda said, nodding her head and picking up the case again. They continued on their way to the kitchen where they found the rest of the girls shifting through bags of frozen vegetables, Stacy standing at the bar. A notebook with a list of things yet to be picked up and would be picked up two days before the dinner happened, sat before her as the girls organized things into bags and boxes.

 

Brandy was the only one to see the mirror move on them. It was Thanksgiving day and she was up early, using Stacy’s computer with her permission to create a powerpoint presentation for her business class. Or trying to since her focus kept being drawn to the mirror that she could just barely see through the opened pocket doorway.

 

Shifting, she dragged her attention back to the screen that had her work opened, and adjusted her reading glasses, typing in the next line of information that she had to work out. It wasn’t reading right to her, but once again, her focus returned to the mirror. As she stared at it, the thing tilted. It didn’t happen slowly as if someone had simply bumped into it, but instead as if someone had jerked on it.

 

Her mouth fell open in shock as she stared at the now crooked mirror. “There was an earthquake that was tiny?” she asked herself, knowing that her own lie was weak even to her own ears. She stood up, waiting for something to happen. “Gods, what could happen next?” she snorted. “The mirror is going to attacking me? It’s a giant piece of metal with glass and wood in it. I swear though that I am going to start reading everything on Stacy’s blog about this damn mirror.”

 

“Read what on my blog?” Stacy asked as she walked into the room from the kitchen side of the house. She was yawning and looked as if she hadn’t bothered with anything beyond a finger comb before she walked down the stairs.

 

Brandy smiled and shrugged in return. “Just your blog. It’s starting to look rather interesting with all of the new things you’ve learned,” she said, chuckling lowly.

 

Stacy hummed and moved over to the mirror, adjusting it back into place with a huff. “I swear that the darn thing moves with any kind of vibrations. Or so my aunt used to tell me,” she said. Brandy smiled.

 

“Yeah, right,” she said, having a feeling that it _hadn’t_ been any kind of vibration that had jerked that mirror off center. Brandy promised herself that she would marathon read her friend’s blog on her phone and tablet, along with all of her notes so far that she had piled into a box.

 

She swore that something was just _off_ about that mirror and she felt that she needed to know what that was.

 


	4. Mirror Mirror 4/8

Hanging the candle lantern from a plant hanger that they had turned into an indoor lantern hanger, Allendra smiled as Brandy finally got the fire going and warming up the living room. “Two PM and it’s a mad whiteout out there,” Brandy grumped, her lips twisting before she sighed. “I’m just kind of glad that we stocked up again and that it’s not really due to last more than overnight.”

 

“Remember that Mitch is going to come over tomorrow with his shovel and leaf blower to dig us out,” Stacy said, coming into the room, carrying the bags of rolled up blow-up beds. Miranda followed after her with the pumps. “Lucky for us that he and and my uncle are both used to helping auntie out, so they’re willing to help us as long as we provide them with coffee and hot chocolate. The good stuff, not the cheap shit that you buy, Kendra,” she said, smirking at the other  woman.

 

“You’re so damn funny,” Kendra teased, sticking her tongue out at her friends but rolling in the coolers that they had bought after the first night without any electricity. The were hoping the older lines would be buried sooner rather than later, but until then, they had coolers so that they didn’t have to leave the room except for a bathroom rush if they didn’t want to.

 

They had quickly decided after that first time that outside of the living room or Stacy’s office with the fireplaces, it was just too damn cold to leave the warmth without bundling up in enough layers to force them to waddle. Thus they had bought the coolers and had all pooled their money together to buy a good sized generator that sat out on the porch area. Stacy’s uncle had been able to finish off what her aunt had started: hooking up a couple of the plugs to the generator. They now had a small space heater for the bathroom that they kept on the lowest setting possible so that they wouldn’t freeze in it while using it.

 

“I am starting to really hate just how cold this house can get,” Marilyn grumped as she walked into the living room with Brandy. She held bags of snack type foods on her arms while also carrying plates, knives, cutting boards and napkins. Brandy just rolled her eyes at her and untied the curtains from where they were held out of the way, letting them cover the doorways to keep heat in and the cold out.

 

“Some of the walls are kind of old, you guys. That is not my fault,” Stacy said as she and Kendra started to lay out the rolled up beds. “That was one of the things that aunty was working on getting fixed. But everything else was taking precedence since it could be done inside. She was not going to go through winter without a wall or two.” She paused in her movements. “Or three. Anyways, I’ve been working on squirreling away some of the rent money and we should have enough money to pay my uncle to tear out the right walls to insulate them proper.”

 

“And you couldn’t tell us that you were saving for that why?” Brandy asked as she frowned at Stacy. The other woman waved a hand.

 

“Because I never thought of it. It’s just the last couple hundred that needed to be saved up. When aunty’s insurance finishes going through, my part of it will be paying for a good chunk of the last of this stuff and uncle is already giving me a good discount on labor and parts and all that,” she said, smiling.

 

The girls looked at each other and Marilyn shrugged, the four deciding to help their friend anyways. They weren’t really going to be moving anytime soon though Stacy was set to graduate before them, true, but she wasn’t going to shove them out of her house either. So it wouldn’t be hard to help her with the upkeep of their home.

 

With that decided, the group returned to setting up the beds, Marilyn and Allendra heading upstairs to get thick blankets that they had all bought for the sole purpose of using during an outage. They brought them down them down in three trips along with their pillows. The rest of them arranged the blow up beds and furniture around the fireplace, making sure that the coolers were out of the way and the snacks were on the table in the middle of the room.

 

Marilyn braved going out onto the porch, cursing the fact that no matter how well enclosed it was that it was still freezing, using another extra-large rolling cooler to bring in a large amount of wood. She knew that if the electricity wasn’t fixed by the next day that they would be going through quite a bit of it.

 

Once they had it all set up, Brandy used one of the smaller lanterns to start reading one of Stacy’s mother’s journal about their family history. She had discovered the journal when Stacy had received it from her mother and had asked to read it, curious as to if there was anything written in it about the mirror. Luckily her friend had just smiled and handed it over without question, telling her that she wasn’t ready to turn to it, wanting to go through the various copies fo the family journals and make sure that she had them all first.

 

The other girls took their own small lanterns to their beds, making them up and settling in with their own things to kill time with, mostly working on homework by hand. After a half hour of reading, Brandy made a curious sound as she sat up on her bed, looking to Stacy.

 

“Hey, did you know that your mom was freaked out by that mirror of yours?” she asked, Stacy blinking and staring at her. “Yeah, she made notes on the fact that she had seen a few interesting things in it and that she wasn’t the only person to see them,” she continued, wiggling the journal at her friend. “She had made a note that she went into more detail in her type notes about everything but I haven’t gotten to those.”

 

“Really? I didn’t know that,” Stacy said, moving to look at the part that Brandy had just read, biting at her bottom lip as she read over it. She finally stood, making a decision. “Don’t take this the wrong way, but did you see something in the mirror?” she asked.

 

Brandy’s hesitation read clear on her face but she still answered. “Yeah, I did. Rather, it’s not what I saw _in_ the mirror but rather what happened _to_ the mirror. It was jerked off center the day after Thanksgiving,” she said. She reached out to catch the small lantern when it fell off of her bed as she shifted. The women all stared at her, their eyes wide as Stacy sighed and held up a finger.

 

“I’ll be right back,” she promised. Grabbing a pillar candle from the table and heading into her office, she grabbed her laptop from her desk along with the portable drive that held the picture. Walking back into the living room, she sat on the couch and put the candle back into it’s spot, letting her roommates sit or lean against the couch as she turned on her computer.

 

It didn’t take her long to log on and attach the hard drive, nibbling at her bottom lip.

 

“Remember when I was taking some pictures to use for my blog of some of the things that I still have in the house? Like the serving platter that you cussed at while you were polishing it for me, Miranda,” Stacy said, eyeing the woman next to her. Miranda just groaned and hung her head at that memory. “Anyways, I also took a few pictures of the mirror. In the second picture of a set of three, I caught something,” she said. She found the file and unlocked it, opening the picture.

 

All the girls leant over and stared at the picture before Kendra yelped and dived off of the couch, falling onto her ass with a wince, arm outstretched and finger pointing. “Me and Allendra saw that chick in the mirror! She looked a whole lot more pissed than that,” she said.

 

Stacy just stared at her before looking over her shoulder at Allendra, getting a nod. “What about you two? Have you seen anything?” she asked Marilyn and Miranda.

 

Miranda nodded her head with a thoughtful look. “Yeah. It was a while after we all moved in, before that first big storm that hit us. I was bringing in the shit that couldn’t stand the cold. I could have sworn that I saw something out of the corner of my eye while I was hauling things in.”

 

Marilyn shrugged one shoulder with a blush. “I thought that I saw this chick when I wasn’t all that sober so I just brushed it off,” she said, moving to flopping back onto her bed. She sighed and grabbed a pump to reinflate it as she continued to talk. “It was that one night that I had the date with the asshole.”

 

“So we have seen something,” Brandy said. Stacy had already opened a file and typed in the information that the other women had said with a frown.

 

Saving the file, Stacy sighed and shut down the laptop. “I think that I might do a bit more information hunting about this mirror. Tomorrow I’ll see if I can’t have Uncle Brian move it to the back of my closet since I’ve got a stud with a hook in it,” she said. The rest of the group nodded.

 

“That sounds like a good plan. You mind if I go through the journals you have and see your mom’s better notes?” Brandy asked. Stacy shook her head. Once she had pumped up her bed, the rest taking to their own beds again, she headed into Stacy’s office with a candelabra in one hand to light her way.

 

Knowing where the tote full of recreated journals were, she hunted down the notes that had been typed up and put together by Stacy’s mother, pushing it into the living room. She teasingly thanked Stacy for putting felt on the bottom of the tote as she kicked it over next to her bed. Putting the candelabra back into its place, she sat down next to her bedding, intent on starting her research.

 

Allendra huffed, moving one of the shorter hooks over to her and turning the lantern up so that she had better light before sitting in front of the coffee table. Finding the cheese block, she started to slice up part of it, knowing that Brandy would nibble while she worked. “Such a history slut,” she teased.

 

“Shakespearian skank,” Brandy absently returned, digging around in her bag with a frown. “Fuck me. I need another binder, and some more paper. And my fucking writing box,” she growled, standing up to pull on socks and a jacket. “This is gonna suck hard. Anyone need anything?” she asked.

 

“Can you grab my fuzzy socks from by my bed?” Kendra asked. Brandy nodded in answer before she grabbed her lantern to use instead of a candle. It didn’t take her very long to find everything that she needed, hauling it all down before setting up her floor desk next to her moved bed. She smiled at Marilyn, knowing that she would have thought to move her so she had a bit more room to work with.

 

Tossing Kendra her socks, she settled in to start her research. Stacy smiled and flipped her laptop closed, taking into her office before she grabbed her own supplies, settling next to her friend, joining her in digging into the mirror’s history.

 


	5. Mirror Mirror 5/8

Luckily for them, Stacy’s uncle didn’t bat an eyelash when they asked him to move the large mirror into her closet. He just pulled it down and showed her how to unhook the back of the mirror so that they could move the parts when she next wanted to move it on her own at a later time. When he had pulled it apart, they found a picture that was pressed between the wood and mirror, Stacy tucking it into her binder with her notes that she had taken about the mirror itself.

 

The women had all agreed that it was a good thing that the mirror had been hidden out of the way for the moment so they could finish off their semesters and get to winter break. Marilyn had planned heading to her parents house and would be back the day after Christmas. Kendra’s and Miranda’s family lived in the same city as they were, so they had stayed at the house and gone to their family’s home for during the days. Allendra and Brandy had also both stayed, not having the money to visit their parents so they had pitched in for Christmas dinner with Stacy’s family.

 

At least those who were coming in.

 

Between her thesis project, her finals before winter break started and her job, Brandy had also worked on going through the journals with Stacy. Between the two of them, they had compiled a lot of information and on New Year’s Eve, had gathered all of them together to talk about the mirror.

 

“Okay, so this thing has a long and complicated history,” Brandy sighed as she sat up the projector that was hooked up to her computer. Since Stacy’s desktop was a newer version, their current projector didn’t really like it so they had moved her desktop to use, glad that it was a couple of years old after the college had sold it to her for a good price.

 

“How complicated are we talkin’ about?” Marilyn asked. She plopped down onto the loveseat that they had moved to sit in front of the projection screen that Brandy and Brandy had set up.

 

“So long and complicated that we had to make a slideshow to explain it with a bullet point presentation instead of details,” Brandy drawled. She sat down next to her computer in one of the chairs from the dining room. “So sit down and let us talk. You guys did want to know about this,” she said, the rest of the girls getting settled on the various seats. “Okay. I’ll let Stacy start this off.”

 

“So the mirror was given to my ancestors. They were the Devilions and they were one of the families that helped form the city as we know. I did some digging into the guy who made the mirror frame and found out that the guy hadn’t really liked the head of the family at the time, Leonard Devilion. It was because he had married the woman who the guy had loved,” Stacy said. The first picture was a picture of the couple. “His own journal admitted that his ‘desires for the frame of a male most often got the best’ of him. And that he did have a lover on the side that he loved desperately.

 

“The marriage only happened because it was expected of her, and seeing that she had to hide her own desires for both male and females, she wasn’t going to talk any time soon. Yes, they had children, about four of them total, and they had taught them that love is love, but society is a bitch and that to keep their family safe that they had to hide their love,” she said.

 

They all looked at the picture and noted that the woman was pretty. Slim. Petite almost. With the fact that the picture was a sepia toned picture, they could only guess that her hair was a lighter shade than her husbands. Her husband was quite obviously a very handsome man, built from hard work, broad of shoulder and dark of hair. His face was set into an almost bored look.

 

“The guy who had made the mirror was later driven out of town for being a suspected witch. He was later lynched in his new town so there’s a chance that the decorative bits on the frame hides something that holds energy to it. Or just draws darkness to it,” Brandy picked up. She crossed her legs as she tapped to the pictures of the scanned newspaper of the various bad luck bits that had happened to the family.

 

One of the girls who had been born to the couple lost two of her three husbands, and four of her eight children to various reasons. Over the generations, the family had lost family, homes, and money, but they had always bounced back once the mirror had been passed onto another family member. It hadn’t been given away, the family raised to never inflict such things on others, and eventually someone had found a witch back in the early 1920’s who had been willing to paint sealing marks on the mirror part of it.

 

“It was actually my many times great-grandmother who had found a witch when she was a young teen,” Stacy admitted, holding up the journal that had the sealing marks. “She was half Native American, and she had some connections, so she had asked one of them to seal the darkness strictly to the mirror, stopping it from getting out.”

 

“Hey, aren’t those the marks that we saw on the mirror?” Allendra asked, frowning as she squinted at the journal. Miranda’s eyes went wide. “But they had really faded.”

 

“They would fade so hard over time if a spirit was attached to the mirror instead of just generalized bad feelings,” Miranda said.

 

Stacy smiled at her. “That’s what we’re getting to next,” she said, flipping to the picture that she had found between wood and mirror. She looked at the picture. “This is actually the great-great granddaughter of the two who received the mirror. She was very angry for some reason. She did marry a man who treated her well, gave her the world but still she was angry. Her name was Joline and she had four children, who was probably the only people in the world that she showed any kind of softness and love to.”

 

“She absolutely loved the mirror though. She was one of the first to have a new mirror insert put into the frame,” Brandy said, looking at her own notes. “She often talked about it in her journal. There are hints that she wasn’t all that Christian but more pagan.”

 

“Her daughter would call her a Warlock, but we don’t know if it was in the way that all witches, wiccans, pagans, and the such were Warlocks back then, or if she was an actual oathbreaker,” Brandy said.

 

Miranda made a disgusted sound. “I’m sure that you both know the way that the word was used. Not a lot outside of the communities know even now,” she said, looking at her two friends. “Then again, it’s not as if you talk about your research,” she teased Brandy.

 

Brandy smiled in return and shrugged. “I’ve gotten in the habit of not talking about my personal research because of my family. They love me but they don’t get my fascination with the paranormal and supernatural worlds,” she said. “Anyways, after that, things kind of really went sideways for her. You know how we said that shit went bad for some? Well things went even worse after her death because before it was just small issues. Sickness, sometimes a low crop year or not so good business dealings,” she said. “After though…”

 

“After her death, things went _really_ bad. Horribly in some cases,” Stacy said, shrugging as she leant against her desk, Brandy shifting to a side by side comparison of the original picture and the woman from her picture. “That was the woman that we saw in the pic I took.”

 

“It looks like her,” Allendra said, looking over to Kendra, the other woman nodding. “Yeah, so why do you think that she’s so attached to the mirror?” she asked.

 

Stacy shifted in place. “We’re thinking it’s because she dabbled in magic, mostly not so nice stuff,” she said, shrugging a shoulder. “From what she did admit, she spoke often of a slave and the man who owned him about things that were, in her words, ‘not of this world’ and after she died, she attached herself to the mirror. Not any real idea as to why, but that’s what we’re thinking happened.”

 

Marily blew out a slow breath, slumping in her seat as she rubbed at her face. “So what are we planning on doing?” she asked.

 

Miranda bit at her bottom lip, thinking, before saying, “I can talk with my aunt about a ritual to remove and excise the spirit from the mirror, force her to move onto her afterlife. “She blushed at the five pairs of eyes that swung to look at her. “Grandmama was a traditional witch and she taught any of her kids that were interested in that life. My aunt and uncle both took her up on it but mom went with dad, not really believing in any major religion but knowing that there are great forces at work out there. I’ve been learning at first Grandmama’s knee, and now with my aunt. She has the biggest ritual list that I’ve seen,” she said. “It has all of the family rituals and I’m sure that we can find one that will work.”

 

The group all smiled, Stacy nodding. “If your aunt is willing to help us, we’ll do whatever we can do to clean the mirror. My family loves it but we’d like if it was just a mirror,” she said, relaxing slightly.

 

“I’ll call her tomorrow when I’m off,” Miranda promised. Stacy nodded her head. “And yes, I’ll ask if she’d be willing to talk about you about things, Brandy,” she said, watching her friend snap her mouth shut before she blushed and chuckled. “For now, is it safe in your closet,” she asked.

 

Stacy nodded. “I put down that mix that you gave me and stuck a couple of my family’s older crosses near it. Outside of some thumping every few nights, nothing has really happened. And since I haven’t unpacked all of my clothes into my closet with everything going on. I’ve been wearing things that aren’t in there though.” She smiled. “Just in case.”

 

“I thought that you were doing laundry a bit more than what would be normal,” Allendra teased, Stacy rolling her eyes at her.

 

“Alright. Since we all know what is going on and we have a start of a plan, let’s go make dinner and plan what we’re going to do tonight since we have time,” Brandy said. She smiled and shut down the projector.

 

Miranda felt as if she was being glared at but just shrugged it off again, having been dealing with that since she had moved in and after each time she cleansed her room. The bitch could just stay in her little mirror and away from her until they were done with the ritual.

 

Then she could burn in hell for all that she cared.

 

“Yeah, let’s Netflix,” she said, smiling at the cheers from the women. “We can do a horror marathon or something.”

 

“That sounds like a plan,” Kendra said.

 


	6. Mirror Mirror 6/8

Walking up to the door, Miranda pushed it open, stepping into the printing shop that she wanted, holding the rolled up, rather thick and frosty contact paper that her aunt had suggested that they use on the mirror. “Hi, how can I help you?” a woman asked as she walked up to her with a smile.

 

“Is Alex in? I have a special job for him that I called about,” Miranda said, smiling slightly at the woman and shifting her armload.

 

The woman’s smile became strained but she still nodded. “Let me go get him. Who can I tell him is here?” she asked.

 

“His cousin Miranda,” she responded, the woman smiling and nodding her head, heading into the backrooms and making Miranda roll her eyes.

 

It looked as if Alex had gotten another admirer.

 

Granted she could tell why since her cousin looked as if he went to the gym for his body when it was just the fact that he worked at a place where he was the strongest of them all, doing a lot of hefting and toting. “That poor girl will never stand a chance as long as she’s working here,” she snorted. She moved over to a work station, dropping the two rolls down onto the table. For small rolls, she had found that they could be kind of heavy.

 

“Well, hello there, what brings you around?” Alex asked as he walked out of the back, smiling at her. Miranda smiled and hugged her rather tall cousin about his waist before she waved a hand over the rolls of thick contact paper.

 

“I’m sure that your mom told you that we’re working on something big right?” she asked, looking around her cousin to the woman who was standing in the doorway. Frowning.

 

“Ah, is this the stuff that you needed to have engraved? Did you trace the shapes?” he asked. Miranda nodded. With his help, she spread out the two pieces. On, up in the upper corners out of the way, it said ‘back’ while the other had ‘front’ on it. On both, the two had the mirror outline traced along with a second one about an inch out. “You got what you need to be marked on it?” he asked.

 

“Yep.” She opened her purse and dug around in it for a moment before she pulled out a small sketch pad that she had drawn the marks from her aunt’s book. “They need to be exact. It actually took me six times to get these damn things just right as it is, so if you have to, use them to create the right stencil for the printing.”

 

Alex smirked at her. “Actually, this works perfectly,” he told her, rolling the contact paper up again, taking the pad and carrying both items into the back. Miranda sighed and sat down on one of the chairs that were offered, knowing that it wouldn’t take her cousin very long since there didn’t seem to be anyone waiting for something. Pulling out her notes and phone, she continued to do some basic research to collaborate what Brandy and Stacy had read in some of the journals.

 

She had taken up helping the two with their research since she had a few accounts that came through her family that worked with the city historical society that they couldn’t afford. She didn’t really mind since the other two were keeping her fed in goodies while she worked with them and the history that she was learning was going to help her history reports that she needed to finish off.

 

Taking a few more notes as she read over old files, her eyes flicked up to watch the way her cousin’s co-worker walked around the store. She was doing various odd bits that she hadn’t known were a part of the job but she really didn’t care about that at the moment. She, for the most part, just ignored her and worked on her notes before the woman came to a standstill before her, her arms crossed.

 

“What is it that you’re here for?” she asked. Miranda turned her phone screen off as she arched up an eyebrow.

 

“I’m here to get some printing work done for a friend. This is the only place in town that I actually trust to do something like this on something like contact paper and in the right shape that I want it to be,” she replied. “And yes, I do have an appointment, one that my aunt was nice enough to set up,” she said, tapping her pen on her notes. “Is that all?”

 

The woman sniffed and walked off with a shake of her head. Miranda had no doubt that if the woman’s hair was down, it would have snapped at her, making her wrinkle her nose and wonder about what that had all be about. Pushing it out of her mind, she returned back to her note making. This time though, she kept a closer eye on the woman as she idly wondered just what was going on in her head. she didn’t really care, but still, there was just something that rang wrong with her.

 

Her cousin walked out of the back room after the forty minutes in the back, holding the contact sheets with a smile. “Here ya go. All printed out according to your specifications and all that good stuff. You and mom can do this shit without me?” he asked, sounding worried.

 

Miranda smiled and patted his cheek with a huff of laughter. “This calls for female energy and done by those who live in the house. The only reason why Aunt Killy is doing this is because she knows it much better than us and can focus the energy,” she said. Taking the rolls of contact paper, she nodded her head up at him. “Don’t worry about it. I promise that we’ll be just fine.”

 

“Alright. Good luck and Goddess bless,” Alex said. He leant down to press a kiss to her forehead before she gathered the load with a smile and walked out. Miranda sighed as she carried her load out to her car, opening the backdoor with some difficulty before she put the rolls on the floor so that it wouldn’t get damaged. Closing the back door, she opened the driver’s side up and slid into her seat. As she settled in, she pulled out her phone.

 

Opening up her contacts list, she found Stacy’s number and sent her a text that she had gotten the printing done before she opened the text from Brandy that had just come through. She smiled at it and replied that she could swing by the library to pick up the book that she wanted along with a few newspaper clippings that had been ordered before she headed back. Putting her phone back into her purse, she reached over to the passenger side seat to put it down before pausing, shivering. She could feel a trickle of something odd run down her spine before she shook it off, sending a silent prayer to her Goddess to continue to watch over and protect her.

 

Pulling out her phone again, she sent another message, this time to her cousin, telling him that maybe he should be cleansed when he got home. She was already planning on doing that since her aunt had already arrived at the house to set things up in Stacy’s off since it had the most room and the floors could be easily cleaned up.

 

Getting back a confirmation, Miranda dropped her phone back into her purse and opened her glove compartment, grabbing the small protection pouch that her mother had created for her just that moment. She hung it on her rear view mirror and made sure that it didn’t hang into her line of sight and wouldn’t swing too much while hanging there. With that done, she closed her door and pulled her seatbelt on before she started the car.

 

Sighing softly as whatever it had been that had creeped her out finally went away, Miranda shook her head and pulled back out of the parking spot. She did drop by the library, picking up the book and the printed files, making sure that she got a receipt from the librarian for the printouts. With her duties done, she left the library and rolled her shoulders once she was back in her car.

 

“Ah, fuck this shit,” she muttered. She grabbed the protective pouch from the mirror put it over her own head instead. “That woman is _so_ not right. In any kind of way,” she sighed, pulling out of the spot and heading home. She stopped long enough to grab enough fast food to feed all of them and then some. Arriving at home, he parked and took everything in, Kendra snickering at her as she helped her carry the food into the office.

 

“Hey! I have everything done!” Miranda called out as she and Kendra put the things down onto a cleared off table. “I also bought food!”

 

“Oh gods, yes. Food,” Allendra groaned as she walked into the office, rubbing at her stomach. Stacy, Brandy, and Marilyn walked in after her. “Your aunt is down in the basement right now. Apparently Stacy here didn’t know about it but your aunt did find a door that lead down to it,” she said.

 

Stacy huffed at her. “I’m actually not that surprised that there are a lot of things that I don’t know about this house,” she said, sighing. “She also found a small room up in the attic that was a household classroom. It’s actually pretty nice, even with how cold it is right now.”

 

“Something new to research,” Brandy chirped as she started to dig into the bags and lay them out. “Got receipts for everything?” she asked.

 

“What do you think I am? Stupid? Of course I did,” Miranda huffed, handing over said receipts with a smile and taking her own food with a snort. “I figured that none of us really want to make food tonight, so we might as well be naughty and get fast food. We can also order in some other food to.”

 

“Thai, sandwiches, or pizza?” Marily asked as she took her burgers, fries, soda, and chicken nuggets, sitting down in Stacy’s recliner.

 

“All of it,” the rest said.

 


End file.
